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Place attachment to a larger through a smaller scale: attachment to city through housing typologies in Tirana

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Abstract

The study examines the attachment to city through housing typologies in an urban context, taking the case of post-socialist Tirana, which was facing the issue of urban identity. The approach of examining attachment to city through housing typology was used because housing is observed to be the predominant morphological stock of the urban fabric, which impacted a quasi-metamorphosis in Tirana’s identity and also because home was found to be the scale of place whose significance was highest from the attachment point of view. The methodology used in the study included sampling, surveying and data processing through SPSS. The sampling of housing typologies was conducted based on their architectural features that had evolved in pre-socialist, socialist and post-socialist periods, within a zone of Tirana called the “Middle Ring”. The questionnaire was administered to 225 inhabitants, namely, 25 dwellers per each of nine housing typologies, while the outputs were processed using SPSS software. Overall, the results showed that most of the interviewed inhabitants were attached to city through their dwellings. Most of the dwellers of seven typologies felt attached to city on different levels, whereas those of two typologies mostly felt unattached; thus, attachment to city is dependent on housing typologies. Predominantly, good location and architectural values of dwellings and slightly less a sense of belonging to a self-described nobility of Tirana were given as reasons for attachment to city. Overall the predictors that influenced the place attachment were found to be dwelling quality and comfort, duration, home ownership and age.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Architecture, Epoka University, Rr. Tiranë-Rinas, Km. 12, 1039, Tirana, Albania

    Edmond Manahasa

  2. Department of Architecture, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Ahsen Özsoy

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  1. Edmond Manahasa
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  2. Ahsen Özsoy
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Correspondence to Edmond Manahasa.

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Manahasa, E., Özsoy, A. Place attachment to a larger through a smaller scale: attachment to city through housing typologies in Tirana. J Hous and the Built Environ 35, 265–286 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-019-09679-7

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